In 1958, a 17-year-old guitarist from Pacoima, California, named Ritchie Valens was on the rise. His family spoke English at home, and he knew very little Spanish.
His producer, Bob Keane, had a ballad ready for the A-side of Ritchie’s next single: “Donna,” written for Ritchie’s girlfriend. For the flip side, they chose a traditional Mexican folk song from Veracruz, often played at weddings. Keane figured that a song sung entirely in Spanish would hardly get any radio play.
Learning It by Sound
Ritchie was unsure at first. He did not want to cheapen a song that meant so much to Mexican culture, and he worried about his accent. In the end he learned the words phonetically, gave it a rock and roll beat, and recorded “La Bamba.”
The Song That Outlived Its A-Side
“Donna” went to No. 2, but disc jockeys kept flipping the record over. “La Bamba” became the first rock hit built on a Latin American song. Sadly, Ritchie died in a plane crash in February 1959, at only 17. Decades later, the 1987 film about his life made the song famous all over again.
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